---
title: The queen received the letter, read it, and wept bitterly as she sai… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The queen received the letter, read it, and wept bitterly as she said to herself, ‘How can I deliver my dearest husband? Who acts: queen, I. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Violet Fairy Book, The Lute Player, sentence 11

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The queen received the letter, read it, and wept bitterly as she said to herself, ‘How can I deliver my dearest husband?

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**Who acts:** queen, I · **What happens:** receive, read, weep, say, deliver · **To what, where:** letter, queen, dearest husband · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Lute Player. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (queen, I), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg641:8:11
# text = The queen received the letter, read it, and wept bitterly as she said to herself, ‘How can I deliver my dearest husband?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	queen	queen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	received	receive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	letter	letter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	read	read	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
8	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	wept	weep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	bitterly	bitterly	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
14	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
19	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	23	advmod	_	_
21	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	deliver	deliver	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	_
24	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	dearest	dear	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	26	amod	_	_
26	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **receive** | past | the queen | the letter |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Theme |
| 2 | **read** | infinitive |  | letter |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic |
| 3 | **weep** | past | the queen *not said here* |  |  |  |  | bitterly *property* | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | queen |  | queen |  |  |  | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient whether/if S»: agent=Pivot to herself=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 5 | **deliver** | can | I | my dearest husband |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent husband=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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